A new entrepreneur will have many doubts in starting an e-business. E-commerce is growing in India. This article is a part of E-commerce guide which lists basic requirements to start an e-Commerce business.

Source/ Supply chain: Its the product source. Products, to sell, can be purchased from a main dealer of area/ state or directly from manufacturing company.

e- Cart / Developer: To sell products online you need a website/ platform. You may use freely available scripts like OpenCart or ZenCart or hire a web development firm to create your custom cart.

Payment Gateway: Payment Gateway is door between your shopping cart and bank account. A payment gateway enables users to shop online using their credit card, debit card, bank accounts, etc. Usually, a payment gateway charges you monthly fees or commission per transition along with one time setup fees.

Shipping Partner: Finding cheap and reliable logistic partner is very important in an e-commerce business. If your product is not getting delivered in time, you have to face customer queries along with negative impression in market. Many e-commerce websites are successful because of super fast shipping, A key factor !

Web Maintenance Team: Job of a web maintenance team is to check health of your e-commerce script and server. Also, to add/edit modules, banners, change/add features you need well technical team. Though, this is optional at the startup, if you are technical sound, then you can take care of it on your own at small stages (and save money).

Social Marketer: Web 2.0 is social web. If you want to spread your e-product in end-users, web marketing is the best way. You can hire a professional social marketing company for the same. Obviously, you can give it a try on your own, depending on your skills, but if you are a “just for friends” Facebook user, we recommend that you go professional.

Support Team: Not everyone is familiar with online shopping or aware of all products. Users get queries, you must provide a fastest way to solve it. You may offer customer support through email, chat, phone. Details on the topic will be discussed later.

Chartered Accountant/ Auditor: When you buy & resell in bulk, you need to manage accounts for above all. To handle all account sheets alone, is a tough task for a non-accounting guy. Dedicating a company or CA person is better option as it is something you submit to the government body.

Investor/ Funds: One thing is common among above eight requirements and that’s money . If you want to launch the platform on a bigger scale, you need a huge amount. You may need to find investors or go for bank loans. I will publish a guide for it soon.